FMC: Too Early for EU Mobile TV Standard

FierceMobileContent editor Sue Marek published an opinion piece today asking whether mobile TV should be standardized, or if that would limit innovation before anyone has really decided what consumers want from it and which technology is the best one to go with.

What brought this on is a push in the EU to standardize on one technology–DVB-H–which some member countries are objecting to.

“I think it’s going to take more than a mandatory standard to make mobile TV a success in Europe,” Marek writes. “Like the U.S. market, I think Europeans are still on the fence about this service. I think consumers are interested in live mobile TV, but I’m not convinced that anyone has cracked the code on the type of content users want and how much they are willing to pay for it. Mobile TV companies often tell me that subscribers want short clips and original content, but Yankee Group consumer surveys often show the opposite–that users are interested in viewing familiar TV experiences, not original content or short, quick clips.”

This makes sense to us. We’re starting to think that mobile TV vendors push the short clips because that’s what the technology is best at, not because anyone stood up and said “I wish I could watch a three-minute episode of Heroes that has none of the main characters in it.”

Should mobile TV be standardized? [FierceMobileContent]

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